Biting The Dust

The phrase "bitingthe lust " appears ld be somcthing more than a figure of speech. Mr. Kinglake, in bis last volimic of the " Hitory of the Crimean War," says : " It would seem tliat this muscular aotion ia apt U oooux when a man bas been arrested by death in the acst oí strenuous bodily exertion ; and 110 doubt ui artiUcryman, while hotly engaged, and véhemèntly serving liis gtm, oiusi in general be mach harder at work than an ordinary iniuntry soldier busjed with hia flrelook. In anèièut timos a lai's! proportion of the slain wi-w killöd in the act of exorting their streagth to the utmost, and tUen it vraa that "biting the clnst" became ftlmost an equivalent for being killed in battle. However liotly engaged, a modern infantry soldier does nol conunonly exert, whüe holtod, amouul 'il' physica] ntxengih, and the instanoea in whioh !■ literally " bitcs the ilnsl " are oomparatively rai'e."